I've always wanted to start a blog, but never really knew what niche I fell into. My interests are vast, but I never knew how to categorize what I really wanted to write about until now. Plus this way I now get to use my journalism degree, which I haven't put into use for about two, if not more, years. I thought I would take you on my journey of being a first time mom living in the metro area in Iowa. I want to bring you a long with me on my struggles, my triumphs and maybe be a voice eventually for those who feel like they are alone at times.
It all started in August of 2017 when my husband and I decided it was time to start trying for a baby and to grow our little family. Although, I honestly wouldn't call it little with our 2 human, 2 cat and one dog household. It all seemed to honestly fall into place once we purchased our house in September of 2016, did the must needed renovations and fell into our daily, city lives. So after much discussion, we decided it was time to get off my birth control and start trying for a baby. We really didn't start trying until about October of 2017, it was casual at best and really didn't do much tracking until about November/ December of 2017. We used to OVIA OVULATION app which was great to track down periods, ovulation cycles and days that you did the deed during your 'most fertile days'.
I don't know how many Dollar Tree pregnancy test I went through, which are honestly really good quality and give you your bang for your buck(the pink ones), if you don't want to spend a lot of money on the larger brand pregnancy test. Then in February we finally got our big fat positive(BFP). We were ecstatic! We were finally pregnancy and couldn't wait to tell our families! We made a huge deal out of it and even did the cute little announcement. Unfortunately, that happiness was short lived. On March 15, 2018 I started spotting, I went in to get an emergency ultrasound the following day which only showed me being about 5 weeks 5 days, no heart beat....I should have been 9 weeks at that time. Then on March 17, 2018 my whole world came crashing down as I miscarried my baby. We were devastated and the only solace I personally took was that something had happened and the baby hadn't fully developed, there was no heart beat which made me feel like it really wasn't quite a baby yet. After my husband and I talked we both agreed we wanted to try again as soon as we could, the doctors said to wait at least one cycle so it could help with tracking purposes, but if we didn't wait that was fine as well. Well, knowing me and being impatient as I am...I didn't want to wait. So once the bleeding stopped and I tested down to a negative with an at home pregnancy test it was time to start trying again.
Then April 27th happened. Two weeks prior, I was talking with my sister in law and told her that I thought I was pregnant again. That I was tired and having A LOT of the same symptoms again as the first time. She thought I was crazy and told me there was no way that I was pregnant again. I really didn't know when my next period would start, because I hadn't had one since the miscarriage so I was really up in the air with all the crazy hormonal changes that was happening. So, by a hunch, I woke up early the morning on April 27th and sure enough I saw two pink lines on my First Response test. I started crying, but kept calm and waited for my husband to leave for work before I called the OBGYN and scheduled a blood draw. Fortunately I didn't need to be at work until late that day. I went in to get my HCG levels tested as well as my progesterone. I got the test results later that afternoon and my HCG was at a 99 mIU/ml and my progesterone was at a 20.3. I nearly cried! Everything was going great! Later that night I told my husband and he was in complete shock, he couldn't believe we had gotten pregnant so quickly, but reminded me to keep myself guarded until we knew more. Then the following Monday, April 30th, I went in for another blood draw for HCG to make sure that my levels were at least doubling and they came back a 522 mIU/ml. I requested a third draw to triple check, to make sure my levels were still growing, what can I say...I'm kind of a worry wart, and my nerves calmed down to see that they had raised by 11,737 mIU/ml by May 7th.
On May 18th we had a trans vaginal ultrasound showing my little baby and dating the estimated due due(EDD) to be January 6, 2019 with a little, healthy heart beat at 128 bpm. We were ecstatic and couldn't believe everything was finally happening. After a couple more ultrasounds to verify that everything was going well, we then decided to tell our families. No fancy announcement, this time we just told them that we were pregnant again.
Now we are 17 weeks 3 days and the baby is growing very well! I'm incredibly scared, excited and nervous to be a mother, but I know with the help of my husband and our families we can figure it out.
Until next time,
Midwest Mommie <3
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